Pete Davidson Has Some Advice for Kanye West

Make Kanye 2006 Again, but don’t do it in a way that makes George W. Bush 2006 again.

NBC

Pete Davidson dropped by “Weekend Update” on Saturday to speak out about Kanye West’s bizarre decision to end last week’s episode by delivering an impromptu speech about Donald Trump. It’s rare for Saturday Night Live spends any time commenting about the events of the previous week’s episode. Host Joe Pesci did it in 1992, using his monologue to joke about beating up Sinead O’Connor for ripping up a picture of the Pope the prior week, but it’s not standard operating procedure. So burning an entire “Weekend Update” segment on Kanye says a lot about how much the cast of Saturday Night Live hated being used as props in his mad scene. Here’s Davidson:

If it bothers Davidson so much to have a musical guest voicing support for Donald Trump, he should look into this show Saturday Night Live—I hear they let that guy host an entire episode! But hypocrisy aside, Davidson, who has always been open about his own mental health issues, is well qualified to discuss Kanye’s recent behavior:

First off, a lot of people thought [Michael] Che should be the one to talk about Kanye. But we discussed it, you know, because Che’s black, but, like, I’m crazy. And we both know which side of Kanye’s at the wheel right now.

It probably wasn’t a great bet to speculate about Kanye West’s mental health—Joe Pesci speculated that Sinead O’Connor should be beaten for suggesting the Catholic Church had a sex abuse problem, and look how well that’s aged—and it seems like it’s in questionable taste to attack Kanye for going off the rails when Saturday Night Live made it clear in their own advertising that Kanye going off the rails was part of the attraction:

Still, Davidson actually had some pretty good advice for anyone whose pride gets in the way of getting better:

Kanye, I know you’re like, “Yo, this is the real me. I’m off the meds.” Take ’em. There’s no shame in the medicine game. I’m on them. It’s great! Take ’em. There’s nothing wrong with taking them. If I got on a plane and the pilot said, “I just want all of you to know: This is the real me flying the plane,” I’d jump out. Being mentally ill is not an excuse to act like a jackass.

Saturday Night Live still hasn’t released their footage of Kanye’s complete post-credits rant, and probably never will. But the segment does give a brief, previously unseen shot of Davidson hanging his head in disbelief as Kanye talks about how Donald Trump is a builder, and it’s tantalizing and hilarious. If there’s some issue with Kanye West over the rights, blur him out and cut the audio, but please let us watch the cast try to get off stage with their careers intact. NBC gave us The Apprentice and Donald Trump on The Tonight Show and Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live, all of which helped give us Donald Trump in the White House. Treating the nation to an awkward comedy of manners starring the cast of Saturday Night Live seems like the very least they could do.